NGINX:  Better and Faster Web Server Technology

Web servers are the foundation of any web activities. Choosing the correct kind of web server can be the contrast between a fruitful application/site and an unremarkable site that slacks. In this way, it is vital to comprehend your necessities, previously you choose which web server you want.

What Is NGINX?

NGINX, articulated as motor X, is a famous web server that, likewise, serves as a turn-around intermediary, stack balancer, and HTTP store for HTTP, TCP, and UDP servers. Structured by Igor Sysoev in 2004, this web server was planned as an approach to sidestep the C10k issue.

NGINX is open-source software that currently runs on multiple environments including Unix, Linux, BSD variants, MacOS, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, and Windows. Sysoev’s goal when creating this web server was to create the fastest web server around, and the community consistently tries to continue maintaining this goal. It beats other web servers in benchmarks measuring web server performance.

As websites became more dynamic, NGINX has followed suit. From simple HTML pages to dynamic websites, NGINX supports all the components of the modern web, including WebSocket, HTTP/2, and streaming of multiple video formats (HDS, HLS, RTMP, and others).

C10k Problem

When the Internet was young, scaling wasn’t such a big issue. However, as the Internet grew into a massive aid for business and connecting people across the web, scaling became one of the main issues that needed to be tackled.

The main problem that web servers commonly faced were heavy loads. When more connections are required to be made, the web server slows down. This was coined as the C10k problem by Dan Kegel in 1999, referring to the Simtel FTP host, cdrom.com, serving 10,000 clients at once over 1 Gigabit Ethernet in that year.

Although servers are more than equipped to handle that many loads today, the problem that many web servers still come across is handling more requests per second, which reduces the speed of handling requests. NGINX uses a more scalable, event-driven (asynchronous) architecture, instead of relying on thread-based request handling system, making it efficient to handle more requests per second without compromising on speed.

Features of NGINX

• Low memory footprint
• Ability to handle more than 10,000 simultaneous connections
• Handling of static files, index files, and auto-indexing
• Reverse proxy with caching
• Load balancing
• IPv6-compatible
• Name-based and IP-based virtual servers
• The PUT, DELETE, MKCOL, COPY, and MOVE methods
• FLV and MP4 streaming
• Response rate limiting
• Limiting the number of simultaneous connections or requests coming from one address
  Embedded Perl

These are only a couple of the highlights of NGINX, you can look at a total breakdown of its highlights here.

LEMP Stack

LEMP is an anagram that defines a group of software that is used to get a server up and running. The stack includes the following four software: Linux, NGINX (pronounced as engine-X), MySQL, and PHP.

LEMP stack is a variation of the famous LAMP stack, but it replaces Apache with the lightweight and powerful NGINX, keeping the rest of the stack intact.

The Distinction Between LEMP and LAMP

As expressed previously, the main distinction between the LAMP and LEMP stack is the web server. While LAMP utilizes Apache web server programming for its applications, LEMP utilizes NGINX for its very own stack.

Apache has ruled the server innovation for such a long time and has assumed a key job in the underlying development of the World Wide Web, however, was moderate and laggy, contrasted with NGINX and Varnish, when it came to the conveyance of static pages. Be that as it may, in the 2.4 arrangement, Apache has figured out how to contend no holds barred with occasion-based web servers. You can find out about Apache essentials in this instructional exercise.

As of now, the LAMP stack is increasingly prevalent with regards to building sites. Be that as it may, LEMP is following not far behind for engineers who need a web server that is quick and has a smaller impression.

Apache Versus NGINX

Apache and NGINX can be considered as opposite sides of the coin, with both offering a similar end objective with various methods. Apache and NGINX are both astonishing programming choices that can assemble incredible and dynamic sites.

Here are a few highlights of every server innovation:

While both Apache and NGINX are astonishing programming tools for building web servers, Apache is progressively fit for usefulness substantial applications and sites, while NGINX is quicker and ready to deal with a higher load. NGINX, likewise, offers different capacities, for example, turn around intermediary, stack balancer, and HTTP store, making it an incredible programming tool to have close by.